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Grazza

TourneyBlog: Hello Grazza! Congratulations on your victory during the Ladbrokes Poker LEOCOP 2 Main Event! Here is what we know about you; real name Graeme Newman, 30 years old, you are recently married, and you live in London, where you own and operate a specialist insurance broker business. Did we get that right?

Grazza: I think that just about sums me up. Maybe you should just add..."certified poker addict" to that list as well.

TB: You have people that work under you correct? Does that mean Mandatory Hold’em Time during lunch breaks?

Grazza: It's strictly a "do as I say not do as I do policy" in the office, which sadly means no poker at lunch times. Afterall, what would I do if someone won big and decided to leave in order to follow a career as a professional poker player....

TB: Does being your own boss have its perks, such as scheduling time for playing poker online?

Grazza: Of course! Running my own company is great from the point of view of flexibility. It gives me the chance to jet off at the last minute if I happen to qualify for a big live event and obviously it allows me to roll in a little late in the morning when I win $230k in the hourly hours of Monday morning...

TB: How much poker had you played before your LECOP experience, both in person and online?

Grazza: I play a lot of online poker, probably about 40 - 50 hours a week and have been playing for about 4 years now - that's a lot of poker! I used to be strictly a tournament player only, with my main focus on single table tournaments. Recently I have been playing a lot more cash games online and a wide variety of multi-table tournaments. My live experience has been limited to the big events that I have won qualifiers to, such as the World Series main event, the British Poker Open, the Caribbean Poker Classic, Ladbrokes Poker Cruise, and London EPT. I also play for fun at the Gutshot a few times a month just to build my experience of the live game.

TB: Is it true that you won your seat into the main event an hour before it began? How did that happen?

Grazza: Yes, it really was a last minute decision. I was playing in another big tournament that evening and thought I'd have a go at one of the turbo qualifiers for the Ladbrokes event. I decided that if I won it then I'd play, if not then I would just concentrate on the other event. It was one of the wildest crapshoots you'll ever find. You get 100 chips and the blinds go up every minute. Basically you pick your hand and go all-in...then hope for the best. It may not sound like there is any strategy to this type of event, but actually there is and I think that helped me to get through!

TB: When the tournament begin, did you have any idea you were in for 12 hours of poker? How do you prepare for such a long haul, or adapt to it? Lots of caffeine?

Grazza: Obviously I always hoped I'd be there for the duration, but thought it was pretty unlikely. I knew it would be a long game as the structure of the tournament was fantastic. You had a starting stack of 5,000 and blinds went up every 30 minutes. There was no particular preparation as I'm used to playing long sessions of poker online...it was just a case of settling down and not rushing things.

TB: Was your wife right there through the whole thing, or was she more like; “I don’t care what the pot odds are, it’s 3am, either go all in or get to bed!”

Grazza: I have to say she is incredibly understanding. She never complains about my poker playing (well rarely) or the fact that she often gets woken up in the early hours when I finish a long session. I think my victory yell woke her up at about 6am and when she heard how much I'd won she really wasn't going to start having a go at me!

TB: Did you have a specific goal, such as “I just want to cash” or “I’m going for the win.”?

Grazza: I always play to win. As with all tournaments the majority of the prize pool is paid to the top three spots so there is no point in just aiming to creep into the money. The added bonus is that with that kind of money at stake many people tighten up far too much and that provides a great opportunity to build a big enough stack to win the event.

TB: Did you have a specific strategy for the game, and did it have to change at any point?

Grazza: I try not to set out with any pre-conceived strategies. It really is a case of adapting to the players at your table. In general I look to play hands with potential to flop very big at the early stages in order to try and crack a big pocket pair and then switch later in the game to playing big hands only. However, the most important part of the game is to keep mixing it up and reacting to how things are playing out at the table. For example, at the final table when we were down to about 7 players one of the Scandinavians became hyper-aggressive. He was raising and re-raising every pot. I just sat back and waited for a big hand. Then when he was out I noticed the other guys were playing very passively - one of them checked down a flop on which he had hit top pair. So I decided that was the time to go for it and I really opened up.

TB: It wasn’t until sometime during the fourth hour of the event that you were in the top ten in chips. What were the first few hours of the game like? Lots of ups and downs, or steady-Freddy?

Grazza: My chip stack was like the whore's drawers - constantly up and down. I built a good few chips very early on and then blew them just as quickly. At one point early on I was down to about 1,500 chips, but managed to find a few big hands to get my back on my feet. Poker is a lot about momentum and it was good to only hit the front in the later stages. If you peak too early then it can lead to tilt as you find your chip stack going backwards. If you drop from 100,000 to 50,000 chips you can seriously go on tilt, even though you may still be in the top 3 at that stage. Conversely if you go from 10,000 to 50,000 you are on top of the world.

TB: You were back out of the top ten by the fifth break, right before hour six, then back in during hour seven; really building steam in hour eight, when you were 3rd in chips by the break. How many all ins did you have to survive during this time?

Grazza: I was very, very rarely all-in. This was the beauty of the structure in this tournament. For the majority of the game it played out like a cash game, with everybody playing a deep stack and very few pre-flop all-ins. To be honest, it wasn't until the final table that I put myself seriously at risk. Generally when I was all-in it was against someone with a much smaller stack than me.

TB: You had to outlast and out play a field that included pro players, such as Paul "Actionjack" Jackson, John Shipley, Jani "Hellraiser" Sointula, Bengt "Pkrbt" Sonnert and even Ladbrokes’ own, - Roy "The Boy" Brindley. To what degree where you aware of them in the game, and how did it affect your play?

Grazza: I try not to think too much about players' reputations and just concentrate on playing my A-game against everybody. I was only ever at a table with Roy and John and by that stage it was really the end game. I think the pressure must have been on Roy because everyone knew who he was and as a result I managed to stay well under the radar. Ironically it was John Shipley who took me out of the 2005 WSOP Main Event with JJ v my AA. Ultimately I outdrew him in the only really lucky hand I had in the entire tournament, with KJ v his 88. I have wanted revenge for a long time and I finally got it!

TB: By the end of hour nine, you had made the final table, helping to speed things up when you took out Cuteknight in 11th with QQ vs KJ. Anything special about that hand?

Grazza: The final table bubble is a horrible moment. Sometimes it can last for hours, since no-one wants to go out at this point. Cuteknight had been a tough player and so it was nice to be able to knock him / her out. A hand like QQ can be dangerous and so often you see it getting outdrawn, so when it held up and I made the final table I was very relieved. It also gave me a good boost to my chip stack in preparation for the final stages.

TB: How did you feel taking out the last player before it went to the final ten?

Grazza: Very pleased. More than making the final table it was just nice to get the extra chips in my stack and finally be able to return to a ten-handed table.

TB: By this time you had fallen to the middle of the pack in terms of chip count. Do you feel nervous now, like you are starting to slip? Or do you just trust in your strategy and keep playing steady-on?

Grazza: I took a few big hits to my stack and the momentum was certainly slipping away. Fortunately I had a few poker friends cheering me on which really helped. Dave Shallow posted on one of the forums saying just to keep calm and focussed and that I could easily get back in the game with one double-up. These encouraging words came just at the right time.

TB: During the last two hours of play, how much attention was on playing the hand at hand, and how much was your mind distracted by your trip up the payout ladder?

Grazza: I tried to totally ignore the prize money. I was trying to play the game just like I would any other. The most important thing for me was seeing how the other players were being affected by the prize money. A couple of the players were noticably affected by the money and I decided they would be my targets.

TB: Tell us about that last hand. You won with kings up against Nixen’s flush draw- how hard was it to put so many of your chips in the pot holding kings with an ace on the board?

Grazza: To be honest by that stage I had a massive chip lead, so making calls was fairly wasy. I also had a very good feel for how he was playing the heads-up game. Nixen did not raise pre-flop, and given his stack size I was 100% sure he did not have an Ace. Also, he immediately pushed on the flop, whereas he had been trying to trap me with big hands before. With that in mind it made it a very easy call.

TB: Are you going to participate in the Sunday, October 15th LEOCOP Appreciation Freeroll? Do you think you will have people gunning for you as the LECOP 2 Champion, and if so, how will it affect your play?

Grazza: Unfortunately not. Sadly I am unable to play in the event as I only played three of the LECOP events (I had to miss the last one because they moved it). I have played a bit on Ladbrokes since and everyone has been very friendly and I've not noticed people trying to take me on. In fact, if anything I now have a bit of a reputation and people tend to fold to my raises more often!

TB: What’s next for Grazza?

Grazza: It's off to the EPT in Dublin next in order to try and improve on my diabolical live results! After that I'll be playing in the Asian Poker Tour that is taking place in Singapore in November. After that it is probably time for a well earned break and a chance to spend some of the money that I won!

TB: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions- best of luck at the tables and look forward to seeing you at LadbrokesPoker soon!

(Ed note:  LadbrokesPoker offers all new users $100 free when you sign up)

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